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Some Educational Problems. 



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Inlroductory JWdre55 



ELEVENTH LECTURE COURSE 



AT THE 



/IlL^ny (^olle^e of Pl12.rme.c7, 



DELIVERED OCTOBER 5, 1891, 



WILLIS G. TUCKER, M. D., Ph. D., 



Professor of Chemistry. 



ALBANY, N. Y. 
1891. 



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3ME Educational Problems, 



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Introduclory /IJJre55 



ELEVENTH LECTURE COURSE 



Jllhuij College of Pli£^rm2!iC7, 



DELIVERED OCTOBER 5, 1891, 



WILLIS G. TUCKER, M. D., Ph. D., 



Professor of Chemistry. 



ALBANY, N. Y. 
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flDD^ESS. 



Gentlemen — The course of lectures in the College of Pharmacy 
has always been opened by the delivery of an introductory address. 
The custom is, perhaps, a somewhat antiquated one, and I think it 
might be urged with some reason that it would be " more honored 
in the breach than the observance," and that the time thus given 
to formal greetings and generalities might be more profitably spent 
in beginning the real work of the course ; but, be this as it may, it is 
none the less a real pleasure for me to greet you in the old way this 
evening, and possibly the observance of the custom may be not en- 
tirely devoid of all advantages. It, at least, serves to bring together 
class and faculty at the beginning of the session, and prepares the 
way for that free intercourse which should thereafter exist between 
teacher and pupil ; for the time has gone by when the duty of the 
teacher, in such a school as this, is fulfilled by delivering, and that 
of the pupil by hearing, formal lectures at stated times. Between 
them there should be a closer bond of union than the mere exist- 
ence of such mutual duties implies, for both are engaged in a com- 
mon pursuit, and should, with common aims and purposes, work 
side by side in full and hearty sympathy. We hope to feel that you 
are here, not of necessity nor from caprice, but because you have 
freely chosen for yourselves this vocation to which you are, in very 
truth, called, and are therefore prepared to make the most of the 
opportunities which this school offers you for perfecting yourselves 
in your chosen profession ; and we further hope that you will 
feel that this faculty desire to aid you in the accomplishment of this 
end in every way in their power and by the employment of every 
means which they can command. If, then, this introductory exercise 
shall bring us at the outset nearer together, and shall serve to estab- 
lish between us lasting friendly relations, helping us the better to 
understand each other's aims and needs, the hour thus passed will 
not nave been spent entirely in vain. 



We enter, this evening, upon the second decade in the history of 
this school. Founded in 1881, it began its work of instruction in 
October of that year, and last year saw the largest class matriculated 
and graduated which the institution has known. The growth of the 
school has been steady and its progress most satisfactory. The first 
class numbered three graduates, and then were graduated classes of 
ten, thirteen, eight, ten, seventeen, eleven, twenty-two, eighteen, and 
last year sixty-nine pupils were in attendance, of whom twenty-four 
received full diplomas, and two others, not having completed their 
apprenticeship, received certificates of proficiency. The trustees 
and faculty of the school are, however, not unmindful of the fact 
that mere increase in the size of its classes does not necessarily 
imply true growth and real progress, and they have therefore sought, 
year after year, to strengthen the course by increasing and improv- 
ing the instruction given. Pharmacy, considered either as a science 
or an art, is making rapid strides, and it is the earnest desire of 
those who govern this school that it should keep pace at all times 
with these advances. It is not so much that every new thing must 
be taught merely because it is new, as that those who teach should 
be cognizant of what is both new and of real value and in full sym- 
pathy with the progressive spirit of the age. Much of the elemen- 
tary work in such an institution as ours is as far as possible removed 
from novelty, though none the less of the first importance, and the 
wise teacher is he who gives to each part of his course the time that 
its relative importance demands, neither confining himself to the 
foundation principles in his department nor sacrificing these essen- 
tials in a search for novelties with which to entertain his hearers or 
display his own erudition. Under the circumstances which at pres- 
ent exist, the teacher, in a school like this, labors under some disad- 
vantages. The time at his disposal being limited, owing to the fact 
that most of his pupils devote a considerable share of their time to 
service rendered employers, he must restrict his course at many 
points, and, in addition to this, as they come to him very differently 
prepared to begin the subject to be studied, he has the greater diffi- 
culty in deciding where he may best curtail or condense and where 
his instruction should be more ample and detailed. Much of this 
difficulty might be obviated if more time were given to the course 
and an elementary knowledge of the subjects taught was required of 
all pupils at entrance, and in this direction our colleges of pharmacy 
are tending. In the near future, I believe, two or three years 
will be deemed none too long a time to be devoted exclusively to 



5 

college work and a better preparation for the work of the course will 
be required at entrance, but such changes as these cannot be effected 
in a day ; they must be gradually brought about as the public comes 
to realize more fully the value of a thorough education in pharmacy. 
In our own school the number of hours occupied by lectures or 
laboratory work is more than twice what it was during the first few 
years of its existence, and yet we feel that were it doubled again 
the time would still be insufficient for the work to be accomplished. 
During the past summer the pharmaceutical laboratory has been 
refitted and admirably arranged, and I trust that the improvements 
which have been made will meet your approval. The courses to be 
pursued by both senior and junior classes have been systematically 
planned, and we feel confident that they will prove both profitable 
and satisfactory and that the laboratory work of the college 
in the departments of pharmacy and chemistry will be more thor- 
ough, practical and in all respects more valuable than ever before. 
We expect still further to enlarge and strengthen our course from 
year to year, increasing the number of lectures, recitations and hours 
spent in laboratory work, and if we are encouraged in so doing by 
the support of those interested or engaged in pharmacy, we can, ere 
long, remedy many of the present imperfections of our course. And 
by this you will understand me to mean the course as given in most 
of our colleges of pharmacy to-day — a course not long enough nor 
thorough enough to satisfy those who desire to see pharmacy raised 
to a higher level than it occupies at present among the sciences, 
though I would by no means be understood as implying that it is 
too brief or superficial to be of real value, for such certainly is not 
the case. With all its imperfections and limitations it is yet fairly 
well adapted to present legal requirements and the demands of the 
public ; is vastly better in many respects than that given in our 
schools ten years ago, and is one which, if diligently pursued, must 
be of great value to the student. And, when all is said, what course 
can be of value to any pupil who does not apply himself with dili- 
gence to its prosecution ? Often as I have emphasized the fact, I 
am again constrained to reiterate that teachers and books, no less 
than the most elaborate apparatus for imparting instruction, are use- 
less to him who will not devote himself with assiduity to the acqui- 
sition of knowledge. No external equipment, no mere possession 
of titles or degrees, can make a learned man. Personal effort and 
natural capacity are more than school or teacher. " A man that is 
young in years may be old in hours," says Bacon, " if he have lost no 



time," Treasure these golden words, and remember that success in 
life, worthy of the name, is chiefly dependent upon individual effort. 
It has long seemed to me that many of our ideas concerning 
educational methods and the management of our schools and higher 
institutions need decided modification, and I ask you this evening 
to consider briefly with me some of these educational problems. 
Wide differences of opinion among educated men and educators of 
course exist, and during the last few years we have seen the value 
of the present college course, as a preparation for the after-work of 
life, again and again called in question, and yet I think it must be 
admitted that the great majority of educated men, so called, mean- 
ing chiefly those who have pursued higher ' courses of collegiate 
instruction, hold very conservative views as to the value of such 
courses, the management of our schools and colleges and the meth- 
ods employed in teaching. Sentiment and tradition have influenced 
us in too great a measure ; a disposition to take as our model, in a 
new and growing country, the educational methods long pursued in 
older lands with different institutions and social orders, and an indis- 
position to adapt our system to the real needs of our own time and 
our own people, have had much to do with some of our failures in 
education. But these factors, however important, have by no means 
been the only influences which have been at work. So rapidly has 
our population grown that in some cases our high schools and col- 
leges have become little else than great instruction mills for grinding 
out at wholesale men and women all of much the same grade of 
intellectual fineness. We need some method by which the individual 
capacities and peculiar needs of each pupil may be earlier distin- 
guished, so that the course of study may be adapted to the pupil, 
rather than that the pupil should be conformed to the methods and 
the curriculum of the institution in which, very often, chance or the 
desire of others has placed him. It is true that the young pupil often 
does not know his own needs, and is by no means always the best 
judge as to the studies which he should pursue, but, nevertheless, I 
think that at an earlier day those studies which are related to the 
business or profession which he proposes to follow should be selected 
by him or for him. My experience has been that those boys who at 
an early age show a decided liking and aptitude for a particular 
calling succeed best in after life. Such boys often educate them- 
selves largely, and easily acquire a knowledge of those subjects 
which are congenial to them, for, say what you will about the value 
of disciplinary studies, we profit little by applying ourselves to sub- 



jects for which we have no liking and which seem useless to us, and 
as we grow older we find that it is easy to comprehend and remem- 
ber those things which it is essential for us to know, and easy to 
forget that which has no bearing on our work. A century ago a 
man who desired an education might obtain it, in a way, by follow- 
ing a prescribed course of study, but so greatly has knowledge 
grown that it is no longer possible for any course of study, which 
the limit of human life admits of pursuing, to impart even a tithe 
of what is known to-day. To hold fast, then, to ancient traditions, 
asserting that every educated man must of necessity have acquired 
just so much Latin, Greek and mathematics, is to adopt an untenable 
and unreasonable position. The prospective banker or man of 
business, lawyer, engineer, clergyman, physician or pharmacist, each 
needs instruction along different lines after the preparatory school 
has been left behind, and it seems to me irrational to assert that the 
same mental pabulum should be supplied to each during the most 
valuable formative period of life. The increase in the number 
of elective studies in the college curriculum has been a step in the 
right direction, but it does not go far enough. Much still has to be 
learned by the average pupil which is relatively of little importance 
to him, and this is a positive injury in that it entails a loss of invalu- 
able time. My contention is, in part, that too long a time is now 
required of the student in doing preliminary work. He leaves his 
academy at eighteen ; college at twenty-two or twenty-three ; pro- 
fessional school at twenty-six or twenty-seven, and then devotes two 
or three years more to post-graduate study or foreign travel to 
" complete his education," when he should have finished this pre- 
paratory work long before and been well established in the real busi- 
ness of life, before youthful ardor and enthusiasm had cooled, ener- 
gies relaxed and ambition ceased to be a powerful incentive to action. 
I believe that at the present time young men select and enter upon 
the line of work which is to be theirs for life at too late a day, and 
I have little hope for the success of a man who at the age of twenty- 
five is not yet in some sense a producer, by which I do not mean 
merely a money-maker, though the acquisition of wealth is by no 
means to be despised, but that he should be doing something more 
than merely getting ready to do something. The man who at 
twenty-five is not yet taking care of himself and at least making 
ready to do his share in adding to the world's knowledge, comfort 
or wealth, may have certain uses in this complex life of ours, but it 
is not easy to discern just what these uses are. 



8 

Now if it be said that there will always be a certain class of edu- 
cated men, living by the labor of others, benefiting by their toil and 
themselves doing no useful thing, I answer that perhaps it may be 
so, but that I must not be asked to believe that such men are very 
useful members of society and that our educational institutions 
should seek to increase their number. They exist, as yet, in large 
numbers in other lands and by the influence they exert, chiefly 
through the property they control, constitute a far too important 
element in the community ; but we need no such class in a country 
founded upon the principles which underlie this government of ours 
and, I think, we must needs look not only with disfavor, but with 
something akin to alarm, at any tendencies which in this land threaten 
to create an educated, indolent and wealthy class ; for such a class, 
when it becomes an important element in the population, will always 
seek, through the natural selfishness of its members, to put addi- 
tional burdens upon those less intelligent and fortunate than them- 
selves, for upon their labors such a class depends for the luxuries, 
even the necessities of life. Within a few days, Mr. Gladstone has 
warned the House of Lords of the folly of opposing public opinion 
and measures of reform originating with the people. " I, myself,'' 
he says in his Newcastle speech, "in i860 and 1861, had the felicity 
or infelicity to be in conflict with the House of Lords. We had a 
great battle upon the repeal of the paper duties, one of the most 
diflficult and important questions in the whole free trade contro- 
versy. You know what the consequences have been in the establish- 
ment of a free press, which has done more than any other single 
cause to educate the country, and to which we mainly owe the vast 
extension of the franchise which has enabled us to multiply ten-fold 
those who take part in elections." The English heriditary cham- 
ber rests upon an unstable foundation — is liable at any time to be 
overthrown, and its abolition will not long precede that of the crown. 
Such meetings as that at Newcastle point plainly to republicanism 
in the near future in England. At home and abroad, on every side, 
are signs of coming change. Liberal ideas, socialistic ideas. Christian 
ideas — call them what you please — are coming to the front more and 
more. Questions, which a few years ago would have been treated 
by the press, the pulpit, and the people generally, either with con- 
tempt or severest denunciation, now receive respectful consideration 
in the same quarters; and yet there are many still who, blinded by 
self-interest, entirely fail to recognize the great changes that are tak- 
ing place in public sentiment and would shut out, so far as they may, 



the new light which is shining more and more brightly in the world. 
This very summer I met an educated gentleman, American born, the 
son of a New England teacher of note, who deliberately asserted 
that universal suffrage was a mistake, our presidential elections a 
menace to the stability of the government, our institutions a failure 
and the foundation principles underlying our government too anti- 
quated to last much longer. In his opinion, we needed a standing 
army, like that of Germany, to put down the uprisings, which he 
feared, of what he was pleased to call " the people " or " the masses,'' 
and he held the opinion that if a president chosen by the people 
could be replaced by an emperor, of the Czar of Russia type, it 
would be better for the country, by which I take it he meant that 
the people on top of the coach, to use Bellamy's phrase, would sit in 
their places with a greater sense of security. And there are plenty 
of men, educated men, who hold similar opinions. With sounder 
teaching in our schools we should have less of this frothy nonsense, 
I think, and little or none of it were the education of the people 
more directly under the control of our national government. 

This is, perhaps, neither the time nor the place for a discussion 
of any of those social or economic problems which are forcing them- 
selves upon the attention of thoughtful men today, and yet, in a 
sense, many of these questions are closely related to educational 
problems and it seems to me that it behooves all educated men to 
recognize the existence of the tendencies to which we have referred 
and to do their part to avert the untoward results which may flow 
from them. If we are desirous that our present social order should 
be not merely maintained, but improved by the correction of existing 
abuses and wrongs, rather than that existing wrongs should be 
righted by a social upheaval, which will bring disaster of all sorts 
in its train, then we must not close our eyes to these wrongs, but 
must seek a remedy for them, and, I believe, that in the better edu- 
cation of the people will be found the cure for many ills. Our youth 
must be thoroughly equipped for the work of life, and the avenues of 
learning must be opened to the poorest student who is deserving of 
instruction. It is not so much that we have not at present great 
colleges and universities with large endowments and extended courses 
of study, but these are under essentially private control, are ham- 
pered by many traditions, and appeal to a limited part of the com- 
munity only. We need other institutions, or more room in those 
that we have, for worthy students who are unable to meet the pres- 
ent expenses of higher courses of study. It is true that we have 



lO 

scholarships and a variety of helps already for indigent students 
in most of our institutions of learning, but the number thus bene- 
fited is comparatively small. ^ Many believe that the needed relief 
should come through state aid and, for myself, I can see no reason why 
education by the state should generally stop with the common school 
and seldom extend beyond the high-school. Is it not possible that 
the time may come when our national government will control many 
of our institutions now managed by individuals, corporations, or 
states, and expend part of the revenue derived by more equitable 
and reasonable methods of taxation than those which now exist, in 
establishing and maintaining great universities, with preparatory 
schools in connection therewith, in which any pupil may obtain edu- 
cation in any department, poverty being no bar to entrance, and 
capacity and industry being alone necessary to maintain standing. 
Such a conception may seem visionary to some, but I am fain to 
believe that to others, to those who hold that the state should be 
in a greater degree the distributor of the wealth yielded by its natu- 
ral resources and owes it to its citizens to minimize their burdens and 
equalize, so far as possible, their advantages and opportunities, such 
a possibility will seem worth the endeavor to transform into a 
reality. 

We need, then, a sounder common school system throughout our 
land ; a greater uniformity in the methods of imparting rudiment- 
ary instruction, and attendance upon school required of all children 
of proper school age. Without regard to color or nationality ; 
whether in the cotton-growing or the coal-mining regions, in city or 
country, the children must be educated if we are to expect them to 
make good citizens. Ignorant foreigners crowd to our shores, and 
only by educating their children can we hope to make them Ameri- 
cans other than in name only. We need better methods in our high 
schools and academies ; better drill in the fundamental English 
branches and less of languages and science, music and literature in 
our lower schools; and I think that a recent editorial writer in one 
of the New York dailies, commenting upon the public schools of 
that city, says, with reason, " It is painful to reflect upon the time 
and tissue, and mental, if not moral, strength, that are wasted upon 
studies which have no place in the popular curriculum. And it is 
discouraging to find how small is the foundation of sound and thor- 
ough knowledge beneath. * * * What proportion of all our 
children as they leave the schools forever are able, for instance, to read 
English aloud with fluency and understanding, and to write it with 



1 1 

simplicity, clearness and ease? We venture to say that one in ten 
would be a sanguine estimate. And yet not only is there no other 
single acquisition to be compared with this in utility, but there is no 
other test of fitness to teach a child so simple, so direct, and so con- 
clusive. This is a broad statement but we believe it will hold good 
under all circumstances. To read and write in the way we have in- 
dicated means good eyes, quick ears, a clear head, a trained voice, 
delicate perceptions, self possession, and knowledge of many things. 
We are not afraid of the test, and we earnestly commend it to those 
who are in large measure responsible for the future well being of this 
community." 

Many reforms then are needed in our preparatory schools, and in 
our higher institutions the case is not otherwise. In them we need an 
earlier adaptation of studies to the pupils' needs and less time wasted 
in the acquisition of a mere smattering of comparatively useless 
things, and more than all we need great schools where special train- 
ing in higher branches and technical pursuits may be afforded to all 
those worthy of advancement, without regard to wealth, influence 
or position. Could our whole educational system be placed under 
the control of the national government, instead of being left to 
states and localities, many of the desired changes might be quickly 
effected. We might then have common schools throughout our 
land well taught and of uniform grade ; high schools without politics 
or favoritism ; colleges no longer catering to the rich, selecting their 
presidents with a view to the money they can raise, and making 
athletics a principal part of their curriculum ; and professional schools 
which should be more than private money-making enterprises. I 
mean to bring no general and undiscriminating charge against the edu- 
cational institutions of our country, but I do say that, admirable as 
our public school system is in some of the states, it is entirely inade- 
quate to the needs of the people iti others* ; that many of our high- 
schools and colleges are not so managed as to benefit the commu- 
nity as they might, and that, of our professional schools, many col- 
leges of medicine at least are purely business enterprises, maintained, 
first, to make money or reputation for those who condnct them and, 

* A recent report of the Connecticut State Board of Education gives the result of an exhaust- 
ive investigation of the condition of the public schools of New London county, administered under 
the regulations of the " district " system. It was found that " about two-fiflhs of the children in 
school above ten years of age cannot write ; " seventy-one schools were considered "utterly ineifi- 
cient ; " one hundred and seven were doing "some good;" fifty-eight were rated as "useful," 
and only twelve called "efficient." About fifty school- houses in the county were found "unfit 
for use" and many of the teachers were "untrained and incompetent." That such a deplora- 
ble condition of affairs could exist within an hour's ride of Yale College seems almost incredible, 
and yet in many parts of our eastern states things are no better and in many of the southern 
States they are much worse. 



12 



second, to educate their patrons in the shortest time and with the 
least trouble. 

And the control of our educational institutions would be but one 
of many advantages which would result from a greater centraliza- 
tion of power in the general government, in which direction, 1 trust, 
wc are tending, ever remembering that this government is of the 
people, by the people and for the people, and that if this be so we 
need not be jealous of the rights of the states nor fearful that indi- 
vidual immunities will be abridged, nor alarmed at the cry of pater- 
nalism so often raised, for whatever may have been for the intent of 
the framers of our constitution, we are to-day first a nation and then 
a confederation of states, and whatever is best for the individual 
must be best for the nation. The admirable manner in which the 
general government collects its duties on imports and internal 
revenue taxes, manages its postal service and controls the national 
banking system ; the general superiority in brief of our national to 
our state legislation or municipal management, is, to my thinking, 
sufificient proof that it may safely be trusted with greater powers, 
and I could wish that not only our educational system but our rail- 
roads, reformatory and penal institutions, asylums for paupers and 
the insane, together with the inspection of foods and drugs and the 
protection of life, health and property in a hundred ways might be 
placed under the direct control of the national government. It is 
an extraordinary thing that the passing of an arbitrary geographical 
line should alter the legality, and in a sense the morality of many 
an act, and with our widely differing laws in our different states 
citizens are subjected to numberless annoyances and bewildering 
complications and their natural rights and privileges are frequently 
hampered and sometimes seriously infringed. Our widely differing 
divorce, excise and interest laws, and varied legislation relating to 
the practice of medicine and pharmacy and the conduct of various 
trades, illustrate my meaning. Why should the pharmacist in one 
state be required to pass a rigid examination and secure a license 
before he can pursue his vocation, while in another the veriest 
ignoramus is allowed to dispense medicines and deal in poisons? 
Why should one state protect its citizens from ignorant medical 
practitioners while another places no check upon the charlatan and 
raises no bar against quackery, and why should one state educate 
its children efficiently and another provide means so inefficient that 
a large proportion of its youth grow up in ignorance and consequent 
vice? These things ought not so to be and I cannot but believe 



13 

that the rights of the individual and the well-being of the people at 
large would be promoted by such an abridgement of state rights and 
enlargement of national powers as should secure greater uniformity 
and simplicity in our laws, and especially in those which relate to 
education and a proper supervision of those professions and occupa- 
tions which need regulation by the state in order that the public 
may be protected. The properly educated physician or pharmacist 
should have the same right to pursue his calling in one state as in 
another. His credentials should pass anywhere, like a government 
note, and the only way in which this can be brought about is to 
afifiix to these credentials the government stamp of approval. 

And this is no novel or revolutionary proposal, for our govern- 
ment has always insured to its citizens certain rights and privileges. 
It has guaranteed these rights at home, and abroad has protected 
their persons and their property, and under the constitution it 
accords to " the citizens of each state " all " privileges and immuni- 
ties of the citizens of the several states." Why, then, should it not 
control the education of the people, and especially of those who are 
to deal with the public as physicians, pharmacists, lawyers and the 
like who must needs be thoroughly trained before they assume the 
responsibilities which their callings involve ? Should it not, at the 
very least, test the fitness of such to pursue their callings and set 
its seal of approval upon those who are competent, by granting 
licenses which should have a definite value at home and be respected 
abroad ? The holder of an English, German or Italian medical 
diploma or license possesses credentials which have a definite value, 
everywhere recognized, but the owner of an American diploma or 
license, in this or other professions, has something the value of 
which must be demonstrated, and such credentials are seldom recog- 
nized in foreign countries and perhaps not even in an adjoining 
state. The graduate of West Point or Annapolis is known to have 
completed a special course of study and training, but the graduate 
of one of our colleges or professional schools may or may not be an 
educated man. So fully do we realize the truth of this statement 
that diplomas are seldom exhibited by their possessors except it be 
necessary in order to comply with some law, and are not generally 
considered as being, in themselves, any real evidence of scholarship 
or special fitness to pursue a particular calling. State legislation 
has, in some cases, it is true, established grades and added to the 
value of the diplomas of our schools, but how much better would be 
the uniform standards and easily determined value of the credentials 



which the national government might grant. If to obtain the 
license of the Board of Pharmacy of the State of New York be a 
desirable thing, how much better would it be to secure a government 
license recognized in all the States and respected abroad. 

And so also in many other professions and trades, but time will 
not admit of further consideration of this topic and I wish to say 
only, in concluding this subject, that a greater centralization of 
power in this country, a truer nationalism, is in no wise inconsistent 
with a true socialism. The centralization of which I speak does 
not mean a centering of power in individuals, nor in the government, 
as meaning a body of rulers with despotic powers ; it does not mean 
a standing army to awe the people into subjection, nor a naval arma- 
ment to terrorize weaker powers and vie with greater ; it does not 
mean any kind of imitation of monarchical methods, for these things 
can never exist in a democracy like ours and are universally abhorred. 
But it does mean a closer union of the States; a greater uniformity 
in our laws ; enlarged rights, privileges and opportunities for indi- 
viduals, and a better government by and for the people. Let those 
who believe that the existing order of things should continue 
unchanged because it exists; that there are no wrongs to be righted, 
no better methods possible, rest satisfied, but those who hold that 
much of the existing ignorance, degradation and vice may be amel- 
iorated by education ; that abuse of power, whether by individuals 
or corporations, can be checked, and that in a country like ours a 
greater number can enjoy the common comforts of life than now 
possess them, can scarce be expected to feel the same satisfaction. 

Doubtless some will be inclined to ask what reason there is to 
believe that the national government may more safely be trusted 
with the control of educational and other public affairs, not now in 
its keeping, than individuals, corporations, cities or states. Those 
who raise the question will tell us that the goveriTment is only the 
people and not a mystical power superior to human kind, and this 
is of course true, but the fact must not be lost sight of that in this 
country the higher the position the better, as a rule, is it filled. As 
a general truth I think that this proposition will stand and I believe 
that the permanence of our political system chiefly depends upon it. 
As a man advances in political life, step by step, he must see to it, 
if he would rise, that his record is clean. That many of our cities 
arc badly governed, admits of no argument, but our state govern- 
ment is better and our national affairs are managed best of all. 
I have no sympathy with those who denounce our representatives 



15 

at Washington, and our office-holders generally, calling them thieves 
and swindlers or at the least a horde of hungry politicians, fattening 
at the public crib. The newspapers are full of such talk and it is in 
the air all about us, but have those who bring such accusations and 
utter such sweeping denunciations ever really thought how admir- 
ably, all things considered, our national affairs are conducted ? Do 
they remember that defalcations are vastly more frequent in our 
banks with all their careful management, than in our government 
offices. Do those who cry out so clamorously for civil-service 
reform stop to consider how many millions of dollars are collected 
by our internal-revenue department, dealing chiefly with those who 
conduct a business into which conscientious scruples little enter, 
without the loss of a single dollar, and how many thousands of 
postmasters throughout the country render honest service for one 
who turns out a thief. Compare for a moment our present tele- 
graphic facilities with the excessive rates, arbitrary regulations and 
frequent double tolls to points near at hand, with our almost perfect 
and yet constantly improving postal service, and this comparison 
alone, it seems to me, ought to remove all doubt as to the desira- 
bility of multiplying the functions and increasing the powers of our 
national government. I hope the time may soon come when it 
shall control our educational system throughout the land. Even in 
England free education in the common schools is now an accom- 
plished fact, but the higher institutions are still closed to the great 
mass of the people. Advances in this country ought to be more 
rapid. The age in which we live is an age of change. Let us hope 
that it is an age of evolution of better things and that the near 
future may see the correction of many of the imperfections which 
now exist in our educational methods. 

To-morrow evening we take up the real work of the course which 
you have come here to do. Some of you have come to this place 
for the first time and the occasion marks a real epoch in your lives. 
For such it is a new departure and no new course in life ought to be 
entered upon without thoughtful consideration. Is it not a good 
time to indulge in a little mental stock-taking; a good time for 
abandoning some habits which may have been hindrances and form- 
ing some resolutions as to future action. You are all anxious to 
succeed, and if you were to ask me what qualities, in my opinion, 
most contribute to success in life, I should say these three — earnest- 
ness, perseverance and sincerity. Unless a man be in earnest little 
is to be expected of him. Study the lives of inventors, discoverers, 




i6 

•II .1 4. 4.U u 11 u 022 138 818 

reformers, and you will see that they have all been ... ^^cx^ v,<a.w^oc, 

as we say. They have put into their work the best that was in them 
and they have not counted the labor nor the cost. Be in earnest, 
then, if you would win success. The man who is content to do as 
well as his neighbor ; who looks about for an easy berth where the 
pay is good and the work is light, is not the manner of man that you 
should take as a model. There are plenty of such. Do not add to 
their number. If you have chosen a congenial occupation and feel 
that you are adapted to it, work at it early and late ; strive to excel ; 
aim at the highest mark and never rest satisfied with mediocrity. 
And if your earnestness be real it will of necessity be linked to per- 
severance. There are doubtless men, here and there, who hit upon 
bonanzas, who draw lucky prizes in the lottery of life, but the 
number of those who are all their lives trying to discover some 
short cut to wealth and fame is out of all proportion to those who 
succeed in finding it. Most of us have to work for what we get. 
The man that wins is the one who enters the race to stay. Do not, 
then, waste your time and your energies by a fiickle devotion to 
difTerent interests, but stick to your real work whether it be your 
preparatory work now or the conduct of your business hereafter. 
And to your earnest devotion to your work add perseverance and 
sincerity. Some one has said that this word "sincere" comes from 
the latin sine cera, from the practice of filling up flaws in furniture 
with wax, so that it really means pure, not vamped up. Remember 
this and do not try to cover up the flaws in your work with some 
deceptive filler or gloss over your deeds with a thin varnish of pre- 
tense. Be honest with yourselves ; recognize your own deficiencies 
and shortcomings and you can the better surmount them, and be 
sincere, genuine, unaffected in your dealings with others and you 
will win their confidence and merit their esteem. Real success in 
life depends upon character, and each man builds his for himself. 
See to it that you build yours upon a good foundation, and for this 
you can have no better corner-stone than honest, persevering, 
earnest effort. 




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022 138 818 5 * 



